


ice ice baby

by carefulren



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Bruising, Hurt/Comfort, Ice, Injury, M/M, Whump, Winter, mentions of our other 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 04:09:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13356201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carefulren/pseuds/carefulren
Summary: Lance bugs Keith to slide around on an icy parking lot until Keith finally agrees.It's fun, Keith thinks, until he falls. Hard.





	ice ice baby

Keith would be lying if he said he isn’t slightly annoyed as he slips his boots on over thick, wool socks. He had plans to spend the surprise free day curled up under multiple blankets in bed with a textbook, but Lance had messaged him, pulling him from the comfort and warmth of his bed with a “come outside ASAP” message.

He could have ignored this easily, but he knows Lance would have persisted with multiple texts before coming to their shared dorm and dragging him outside, whether he was dressed appropriately or not. So, it’s better, Keith thinks, to blow the fire out gently by meeting Lance’s request as opposed to fanning the flame with resistance.

Outside, the wind is freezing, and snow is still fluttering down, as it has been all night. Keith shivers despite the added layers he packed on and fishes his phone from his pocket to call Lance, because ‘outside’ could literally be anywhere. Squinting, he cups one hand over his eyes for the snow is borderline blinding to his tired eyes. The other hand presses his phone against his ear, and he looks and waits, listening to the ring-back tone of some current song Keith doesn’t know.

After a minute, Keith hears Lance answer with a loud “Hey!” that echoes close by. Frowning, he pulls the phone away and looks to the right to see Lance racing toward him from the resident lot.

“You’ve gotta come see this!” Lance shouts as he stops beside Keith and drapes a cold arm over his shoulders.

Shuddering, Keith shrugs Lance’s arm away and spares a side glance to see Lance’s rosy cheeks and red-rimmed nose. “How long have you been out here?”

“All morning,” Lance says with a wide smile, voice borderline breathless. “Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro were here earlier, but Hunk and Shiro had to go to work, and Pidge went in because she was too cold.”

Nodding, Keith crosses his arms, feeling cold himself despite only being out for a few minutes. While Lance looks cold, he isn’t acting like it, leaving Keith arching his brows slightly as the two walk. Lance always boasts about how he’s from 'the most tropical place in the universe,’ so Keith’s honestly surprised that the brunet isn’t complaining about the biting wind and single-digit temperatures.

When they reach the resident lot, Lance motions with a wide wave toward the ice-slick pavement. “Look at it!”

With furrowed brows, Keith toes an edge, boot sliding instantly. “You made me come outside to show me ice?”

“No,” Lance starts with a laugh. “I made you come outside to show you this!” He gets a running start before sliding across the ice, hands waving about on either side for balance as he skids all the way across the lot until he latches onto the back of Keith’s truck to stop himself.

“Impressive,” Keith calls out dryly as Lance bellows with laughter.

“Try it!”

Keith shakes his head and jams his fists into his pockets.

“Come on, Keith!”

“No!”

“It’s fun!”

“I don’t care!”

“Just come on! I did it!”

A twitch of annoyance tugs at Keith’s face because Lance knows the one weak spot and is constantly stabbing at it with a long knife. Keith has a competitive streak, kind of hard not to when your step brother is a small-town legend, and Lance knows this, being somewhat competitive himself.

“Keith!” Lance continues, drawing out the name with a sharp pitch that has Keith cursing under his breath.

“This is so fucking stupid,” he mutters as he slowly walks toward the ice. He toes at it again, gauging how slick it is with a swipe of his boot. His shoe slides across it quickly, easily, and he frowns, prepared to back out on the grounds that this is reckless and stupid, but Lance is shouting again, yelling his name repeatedly. His voice grates along Keith’s nerves until he’s backing up then running full force to the ice.

Wind whips at his face, feeling like small, frozen daggers, and pushes his beanie up and over his head. His knees wobble as he goes flying across the lot, and he’s in a constant state of feeling like he may fall at any second. His heart is hammering against his chest, loud enough to echo in his ears, but whether it’s racing from fear or thrill, he’s not sure. He’s approaching Lance rapidly, and it occurs to him at this very moment that he hasn’t calculated how to stop. He squeezes his eyes shut as his truck comes closer and closer, and he throws both hands out in a poor attempt to not completely crash against the truck, but instead, cool, soft arms wrap around his middle, and the two bodies slide a little until slowing into a stop.

“Holy shit,” Keith breathes out along a puff of adrenaline as he pulls away to see Lance holding his waist and smiling at him.

“Fun, right?”

“Dangerous,” Keith mutters, but a smile plays on his lips as he glances across the icy parking lot.

“You rock climb for fun, Keith. I think this doesn’t really compare in terms of danger.”

Keith can only nod as a tug of want pulls at his heart. “Race you?”

An impossible smile pulls at Lance’s lips, and the two break apart and start toward the snowy bank off to the side to quickly get back to the other end of the parking lot.

For what feels like hours, Keith and Lance race each other as they slide across the parking lot. At times, other students join in, but majority of the time is spent alone, just the two of them pushing and pulling at one another as they glide across ice to try and be the first back to Keith’s truck.

It’s been a while, Keith thinks, since he’s had this much. His body is slightly sore from small tumbles, but the thrill of whipping across the parking lot keeps him going, that is until his latest slide across the ice.

He’s ahead of Lance, for once, but his shoe hits a snag, a crack in the ice, and it sends him flying forward. He manages to turn onto his side before his body smacks hard against the cold ice, leaving him hissing sharply from a blasting spike of pain that shoots all across his side.

He can hear Lance laughing loudly, and the laughter grows louder and louder until Lance is skidding to a stop beside him.

“Holy shit!” Lance shouts in between breathless laughs. “Are you okay?”

Keith sits up, face pulling into a sharp wince as his side almost burns with pain. He nods anyway, and Lance bends over to help him to his feet.

“You’re soaked,” Lance says, still puffing out breaths of laughs as he steadies Keith with a hand to Keith’s back. “Wanna take a break?”

“Yeah,” Keith answers, and the two start slowly back to their dorm room, shivering and sniffling as they hurry to their building.

The stairs are murder on Keith’s side. He grips the banister tightly and grits his teeth as he climbs them, following Lance all the way to the third floor and to their room. When they reach their room, Lance mutters that he’s running to the dining hall for hot chocolate, leaving Keith alone to change.

He starts taking off layers of cold, wet clothes. His jacket comes first, then his sweater, and finally the long sleeve shirt he’s got on underneath. He pulls it over his head with a muted hiss before he drops it to the floor to rummage in his closet for something dry and warm.

He’s eyeing one of Lance’s hoodies when he hears a sharp gasp followed by something splashing to the floor. Whipping around, he sees Lance gaping at him in the doorway, with a now empty paper cup rolling in a puddle of hot chocolate on the floor.

“What the hell, Lance? I’m not cleaning that-”

“Your side.”

“Huh?” Frowning, Keith tilts his head, not liking the concern painted across Lance’s face.

Lance doesn’t offer a verbal reply; instead, he steps through the hot chocolate on the floor and moves until he’s standing right in front of Keith. Keith can feel his cheeks burning with a blush as Lance reaches toward him, but whatever warm, shy feeling that was threatening to take hold of his heart is replaced with a burning sting that has him glancing down to Lance’s fingers brushing along his side.

It’s then that Keith sees it: the dark blue and black bruises already starting to color his side. “Oh,” Keith says because his mind suddenly can’t remember many words. “Shit.”

“You’re hurt,” Lance mutters, crouching down to study the bruising with a deep frown. “This looks bad.”

“I’ll just ice it,” Keith says, thankful that he can make his tone sound convincing. “I’ve gotten bruises before.”

“Yeah, but those weren’t my fault.”

“It’s really not a big… wait, what?” Keith snaps a gaze down to lock eyes with Lance’s suddenly somber ones, and he holds the gaze as Lance slowly gets to his feet. “Your fault?”

“I made you do it.”

“You didn’t make me do anything.” Keith’s tone is a little sharper than intended, and he swallows back the flicking hint of anger. “I chose to.”

“I bothered you until you did.”

Shrugging, Keith turns back to the closet and snags one of Lance’s hoodies. “You do that with ninety percent of things. I’m used to it.”

“Yeah, but you’ve never gotten hurt because of me before.”

Keith’s never seen this level of guilt before, and honestly, that sad look doesn’t match the bright color of Lance’s eyes– it makes him look younger, innocent. Keith shakes his head and starts toward his bed. “It’s really not a big deal, Lance. I’ll get some ice and take it easy.” He slips the pale blue hoodie over his head before he bends over, very slowly, to start unlacing his boots. He swallows back the pain, but before his fingers meet cold laces, Lance is guiding him to a chair.

“Let me.”

“I’m not an invalid, Lance. I can take off my own shoes.”

“It’s hurting you.”

“It’s not-”

“I can see it. Your muscles tense up. You’re trying to hide it.”

Keith’s eyes grow a fraction wider as Lance crouches down to start unlacing his boots. Lance doesn’t come off as the observant type– he’s more… easygoing, for better lack of words. At least, that’s what Keith has always thought about the brunet. Perhaps he was wrong though. Maybe he’s got to start peeling off the layers that make up Lance McClain.

Lance knows enough to let Keith at least change his pants on his own, though, and when Keith is secured in bed with two blankets wrapped around him, Lance starts toward the door.

“I’m going to get ice.”

“Lance,” Keith tries, and Lance pauses with his hand on the doorknob.

“Aren’t you going to change first? You have to be freezing, Mr. 'I’m from a super tropical place.’”

“The faster I get ice, the faster you aren’t in pain.” Lance says, looking over his shoulder with a frown.

“You don’t have to do this.”

“You didn’t have to slide on the ice.”

Keith tilts his head at his. “No, but I guess I wanted to.”

A soft smile plays at Lance’s lips. “Then let me want to do this for you.”

Before Keith can argue further, Lance slips out the door, leaving Keith huffing out a breath of frustration as he sinks back against the pillows propped up behind his back.

Of all things, his mind goes back to the cold outside, when he first slid across the lot and Lance caught him with those long, slender arms around his waist. His cheeks warm to a soft pink as another groan slips past his lips.

If Lance wants to do this, then, Keith guesses, he will let him.

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to write this after watching slipping on ice fails videos, lol 
> 
> Also, I'm making this a stand alone (not putting it in my VLD Hurt/Comfort Series) because I actually really like this one. 
> 
> Also, please ignore that sorry, cheesy title omg


End file.
